Kidbrooke Regeneration

Kidbrooke Regeneration

Lifschutz Davidson Sandilands’ vision for Kidbrooke Granted Planning Approval in Record Time

Lifschutz Davidson Sandilands’ (LDS) masterplan and phase 1 detailed designs for the Kidbrooke Vision have been granted planning permission by Greenwich Council, four months after they were submitted. The plans, for Berkeley Homes (Urban Developments Ltd), establish a blueprint for an exemplary new suburb of London. The planning committee made no objections to LDS’ designs, which have been roundly praised.

Alex Lifschutz comments “This is really great news for London, coming on the heels of the large scale regeneration planned as a result of the Olympics and Crossrail. This design will transform a huge swathe of South East London and is one of the biggest regeneration schemes in the UK today. We have been immensely helped by people from the Ferrier Estate and surroundings in achieving a masterplan that truly integrates this part of London – in sharp contrast to the existing situation where the Ferrier Estate stands in total isolation.”

John Anderson, Chairman of Berkeley Homes, comments; “We are immensely excited about this unique opportunity to deliver a truly sustainable community. The appointment of LDS to design the masterplan and phase 1 allowed us to move quickly to delivering this exciting vision.”

The approved Kidbrooke Vision masterplan will create a model sustainable suburb over 109HA of land, creating 4000 new homes, 449 of which will be delivered in a first phase by Spring 2010. The homes will replace the existing dwellings and surrounds, which are part of the 1972 Ferrier Estate and will be demolished. The masterplan will be completed over a 15 to 20 year period but construction of phase one will start imminently.

CABE has said the scheme “has the potential to be an exemplar for sustainable suburbs and the redevelopment of local authority housing estates.”

CABE has also expressed great confidence in the scheme’s sustainable credentials saying it “transcends the usual sustainable and eco tags” and could “build on the world’s standards set in places like Hammarby Sjostad in Sweden and Freiburg-Rieselfeld in Germany”.

With its excellent location in South East London, provision of over 50HA as public parkland and fast connections to London Bridge, Waterloo East, Charing Cross and Victoria via its own station, Kidbrooke promises to become one of London’s finest places to live.

The commission represents a significant project for LDS, already well known for its urban planning and scheme delivery on London’s South Bank (Oxo Tower Wharf, Palm Housing, Hungerford Footbridges) and at the Telford Millennium project (for English Partnerships, Taylor Wimpey and the Borough of Telford and Wrekin). LDS, which has won many awards for its work on the South Bank, has a particular interest in helping build new communities and integrating them into existing urban and social fabric.

The masterplan design has been derived with the assistance of Jon Rowland Urban Design (JRUD) while Gillespies has provided landscape design.

The development is a partnership between Berkeley Homes, Greenwich Council and the Homes and Communities Agency – national housing and regeneration agency for England. Berkeley Homes will subsequently appoint other architectural practices to submit work for the latter, detailed phases of the development.

Scheme description

The centerpiece of the plan is a ribbon of new ‘central park’ approximately 130m wide that runs from Sutcliffe Park to the South to the railway lines to the north. This park will be raised to the level of the existing busy Kidbrooke Park Road, which is to be calmed by five new at-grade crossings for pedestrians and cyclists and enhanced by new landscaping. These will replace the single undercroft passage under the existing road which currently sails over the site by up to 7m, creating a polluting obstacle to lateral movement.

This additional park area brings the total of Metropolitan Open Land on site to over 50% of the development area. The new park is to be developed as a series of outdoor ‘rooms’ each with a special character to encourage intensive use. These include sport, outdoor public and cultural activities, bio diverse planting and wildlife, archaeology and school playing fields for a primary school. The new park will link the existing range of green spaces in the area that are currently isolated and underused.

New pedestrian and cycle routes link the central green space laterally across the new development through to the communities on either side – Eltham to the East and Blackheath to the West and these ‘green fingers’ will significantly increase permeability into and out of the new area.

The masterplan is based on the grid of the existing Ferrier Estate and is, in the main, a medium density development. Five-to-seven storey apartment buildings line the central park, with some higher development around the hub, while lower, 3 storey houses at the perimeters fit into the existing suburban pattern. The central park apartment buildings are arranged in ‘C’ shaped perimeters around courtyards open to the park. Most apartment dwellers will have significant views of the park whose edges are softened by the landscaped courtyards.

Complementing the new primary school are other community facilities including a multi-use community centre, a large PCT facility, and shops (including a supermarket) clustered around a new railway and bus station in a public square forming the heart of the scheme.

Kidbrooke Vision

Lifschutz Davidson Sandilands’ (LDS) designs for the Kidbrooke Vision masterplan, an exemplary new suburb of London, have been submitted by Berkeley Homes (Urban Developments) Ltd to Greenwich Council for planning and are revealed here for the first time.

The practice has designed the Kidbrooke Vision, a large masterplan to regenerate over 109HA of brown field site, and detailed its first phase of development (449 homes, including 80 houses). The masterplan provides a blueprint for 4000 new homes on the land to be delivered by Berkeley Homes and landscaping to replace the existing homes and surrounds (which are part of the 1972 Ferrier Estate and are to be demolished). The first homes are due to be delivered by Spring 2010 and the masterplan completed over a 15 to 20 year period.

The development is in partnership with Greenwich Council and the Homes and Communities Agency, the national housing and regeneration agency for England. A number of architectural practices are to be appointed by Berkeley Homes to submit detailed schemes for subsequent phases of the development.

This commission represents a significant project for LDS, already well known for its urban planning and scheme delivery on London’s South Bank (Oxo Tower Wharf, Palm Housing, Hungerford Footbridges and at the Telford Millennium project for English Partnerships, Taylor Wimpey and the Borough of Telford and Wrekin). LDS, which has won many awards for its work on the South Bank, has a particular interest in helping build new communities and integrating them into existing urban and social fabric.

The masterplan has been derived with the assistance of Jon Rowland Urban Design (JRUD) while Gillespies has provided landscape design. Its brief is to deliver a masterplan with 4000 new dwellings on the land to be delivered by Berkeley Homes in a model sustainable suburb to replace the existing dwellings and surrounds. With its excellent location in South East London, the provision of over 50% of land as public park and fast connections to London Bridge, Waterloo East, Charing Cross and Victoria via its own station, Kidbrooke promises to become one of London’s finest places to live.

LDS’s emerging designs have been praised by CABE, following a design review in the spring. CABE said it felt the scheme “has the potential to be an exemplar for sustainable suburbs and the redevelopment of local authority housing estates.”

CABE expressed great confidence in the scheme’s sustainable credentials saying it “transcends the usual sustainable and eco tags” and could “build on the world’s standards set in places like Hammarby Sjostad in Sweden and Freiburg-Rieselfeld in Germany”.

John Anderson, Chairman of Berkeley Homes, comments; “Berkeley Homes believes this area has the opportunity to develop into a vibrant new London suburb and we are immensely excited about this unique opportunity to deliver a truly sustainable community. The appointment of LDS to design the masterplan and phase 1 has allowed us to move quickly to delivering this exciting vision.”